Imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has been removed from a penal colony near Moscow, and taken to an undisclosed location, his spokeswomen said Friday. 

Kira Yarmysh said she was told by a Russian court that Navalny was removed from the Vladimir region near Moscow on December 11, adding that "It is not known where exactly" he was taken. 

His aides say they fear Navalny has been potentially transferred to a harsher prison. 

The Kremlin on Friday told a press briefing it had no information on Navalny's whereabouts. 

"I repeat again: We do not have the capacity, or right, or desire, to track the fates of those prisoners who are serving sentences by order of a court," said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Navalny's continuous prison sentences

Navalny has been behind bars since January 2021. He is serving a 19-year sentence on several charges at a maximum-security prison in the town of Melekhovo in the Vladimir region, about 230 kilometers (140 miles) east of Moscow.

A fierce opponent of President Vladimir Putin, Navalny campaigned against corruption and organized large anti-Kremlin protests.

He was arrested on his return to Moscow from Germany, where he was recovering from nerve agent poisoning that he blamed on the Kremlin.

Navalny has since been sentenced to three jail terms and spent months in isolation in the penal colony for alleged minor offenses. He has denied all charges against him as politically motivated.

wmr/rt (AFP, Reuters)